Quote:
Originally Posted by jbenny
As to predefined page sizes, that somewhat negates the benefits of a reflowable format and still ties us to the archaic concept of a page. Besides, you might read a particular epub on anything from a smart phone, to a 22 inch widescreen monitor. When you add in the different font sizes that might be used for reading, it adds up to a lot of combinations. And if only a certain subset of these combinations was in the specification, that also limits what you can do with a reflowable format.
|
I see what you're saying, jbenny, and I agree. However, I was suggesting that we define a
single page size/margin/font combination and use it for all references, which would get around having to handle multiple ones.
This morning, however, some of the overnight comments, have got me hinking maybe we're making this too complicated.
We're talking about computers here, and computers do boring, repetitive functions fast and without complaint. Why not have the reading application generate some sort of text index? It could be as simple as a straight character count (which would get ... rather large), or it could be some sort of graduated count by chapter and then paragraph and then character. For instance, 10.3.400-475 would be chapter 10, paragraph 3 starting at character 400, running to character 475.
I'm not pushing for that specifically, just making a "top of my head" example.
The important bit is that it be an agreed upon standard, and that it be repeatable. The reading app can generate the reference and locate the point in the text from the reference. Of course, those needs will have to be met whatever the eventual system ends up being.